Abbott goes on voter ID offensive

Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday took aim at a civil rights lawyer who — according to a news story — advised folks in South Texas to ignore the state’s voter ID law when casting ballots in an upcoming local election.

In an August 13 Rio Grande Guardian story, Jose Garza, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, is quoted saying he thinks Texas’ voter ID law is unconstitutional, and that he “needs practical examples of registered voters being denied the right to vote.”

“The photo ID legislation may be the law of the land in Texas but I believe it is unconstitutional. The only way you can challenge it is to find people who have been denied the right to vote because they did not comply with this specific term,” Garza said, according to the story.

Keep in mind: Abbott declared voter ID will “take effect immediately” after the U.S. Supreme Court in June suspended the section of the Voting Rights Act that forced Texas to get a federal OK before implementing changes to election law (Attorney General Eric Holder said in July he will ask a court to require Texas to receive preclearance from the Justice Department for voting laws because of a history of discrimination).

TheRio Grande Guardian story notes there is a special election on Sept. 14 to fill a vacant Edinburg City Council, one of the first elections in the state since the SCOTUS decision.

Some of Garza’s comments:

“So, I would encourage everybody who wants to test this law to go and attempt to cast their ballot using their voter registration card. Let us test the impact of this law. We need to be able to measure how many people this law kept from voting.”

Abbott, who is running for governor, shot back Monday in a statement by saying “the only person working to suppress votes is Mr. Garza and his unethical advice not to follow the law and not to present IDs that voters already have or can obtain for free.”

A slice of Abbott’s response:

“A recent news article stated that Jose Garza, the attorney who advises the Mexican American Legislative Caucus on voting rights and redistricting issues, is encouraging Texans to violate or ignore the law. It is always unethical for a lawyer to advise someone to violate Texas law. Even worse, Garza’s advice does not inform voters to bring one of the acceptable forms of voter ID. Instead, in an attempt to create a false impression that voter ID suppresses votes, the unethical advice is to come to the polls without the needed ID – even if you might have one – in order to make it look like voter ID laws suppress votes.

“Any voter confusion that happens on Election Day will be due to this damaging and unethical advice. This is a desperate attempt by opponents of voter ID who have been unable to find a single Texan who will not be able to vote because of the law. Given that they can’t find anyone who can’t vote because of voter ID, this ploy is likely to suppress many more votes than voter ID ever will. Confusing and misleading Texans in order to create an unnecessary lawsuit is disgraceful.”